Southern Leyte solon pushes reclassification of local roads

TACLOBAN CITY, March 24 (PNA) – Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado is pushing for the conversion of five local roads into national highways, a measure that will allow the national government to allocate funds for the maintenance and upgrading of these roads.

Earlier, Mercado filed House Bills (HB) 2519, 2520, 2521, 2522, and 2523 to reclassify some barangay (village), municipal, and provincial road networks that directly links to the provincial capital, commercial centers and major seaports.

Proposed for conversion into national highways are roads from Asuncion village in Maasin City to Paku village in Bontoc town (HB 2519), Paco to San Rafael Road in Maasin City (HB 2520), Tawid–Guadalupe-Cabulihan-Sto. Rosario-Manhilo Road in Maasin City (HB 2521), road connecting St. 

Bernard and Hinunangan towns (HB 2522), and Pinut-an- Bahay - Liloan Road in Liloan town (HB 2523).

“All our national highways in the province are already concrete. Instead of widening national roads, we can use the funds to improve local roads,” Mercado told reporters on Thursday after a meeting with key national government officials here.

Mercado pushed for the passage of HB 2519, 2520 and 2521 to bring more economic opportunities to rural communities, according to a press statement by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

On the other hand, the solon lobbied for the approval of HB 2522 and 2523 given the inability of local government units in repairing and maintaining the road network damaged by floods and “ordinary wear and tear.”

The road conversion will pass the responsibility for the road maintenance to the DPWH from cash-strapped local government units.

“I even filed a bill to allocate 40 percent of DPWH budget to concrete local roads because I believe that the key to poverty reduction is infrastructure development. Southern Leyte used to be in the list of top 20 poor provinces, but we have improved a lot after concreting our roads,” the solon added.

Southern Leyte ranks fourth in poverty among the region's six provinces with an incidence of 30.2 percent as of 2015, ahead than the three Samar provinces. The province is next to Biliran and Leyte provinces with improved economy.

In a statement, DPWH Southern Leyte District Engineer Ma. Margarita C. Junia supported the proposed road conversions to complement future road opening activities.

“Our office have been extending assistance to the office of Congressman Mercado to come up with documentary requirements for the said bills to be acted upon by the House Committee on Public Works and Highways,” Junia said.

The DPWH Southern Leyte office is tasked to maintain 299 kilometers of national roads and 155 bridges, built in 18 towns and one city.

Southern Leyte, a lone congressional district, occupies the southern quarter of the island of Leyte.

It is bounded by Leyte province to the north, by Surigao Strait to the east, Bohol Sea to the south, and Canigao Channel, across from Bohol, to the west.(PNA)
SARWELL Q. MENIANO